


Part of Me

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Sequel Trilogy Missing Scenes [31]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben Solo Lives, Gen, Missing Scene, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29845509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Rey learns the truth of her heritage.
Series: Sequel Trilogy Missing Scenes [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931056
Collections: Allbingo, Bad Day Collection





	Part of Me

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Life Force Manipulation
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author’s Notes: Yes, I’m aware that the TROS novelization already covered that scene.

Exegol. Even as Rey looked at the place where Ben’s body had been, she could not help but feel empty. This man...he wasn’t her soulmate. Not really. He was someone who had alternated being kind and cruel to her all at once, a man who had called her nothing and yet saved her life.   
  
_I was wrong, Rey._  
  
His voice. Ben’s voice. “Can’t you appear...properly?” she said.   
  
_Not yet. I just wanted you to know that I was wrong. You are something. You have a place in this story. Kylo Ren was an overwhelmingly petty man. I wish I had become something...better than who he was._  
  
“You...you were something too, Ben.”  
  
 _There’s something else. One last gift I can give you...assuming it is my last._  
  
“What?”  
  
 _Rey...you’re more than just a Palpatine. How...how the Palpatine and Skywalker trees are linked is an atrocity, but you’re also a Skywalker. Good as. Your grandfather was my grandfather’s father._  
  
“Oh, Ri’ia’s shorts...”  
  
She should have been angry. Angry, that Ben hadn’t told her this before she’d kissed him. That they were cousins. Instead, she felt the old grief bubbling up. Her family, the only thing that could bring Rey to her knees.   
  
“Oh, Ben. I don’t believe it...”  
  
She didn’t have sobs racking her body. Not really. She was Rey. Rey Palpatine-Skywalker...whatever she wanted it to mean. She had defeated her grandfather in combat. She was all the Jedi. She was not weak.  
  
Tears fell from her eyes, hitting Exegol’s stone.   
  
“I — I don’t believe it,” she whispered. “I found my family, and then I lost them.”   
  
_It’s cruel we met this way. But you...I am honored to call you family._  
  
“Did you love me? As family?”  
  
 _Far more than even I knew._ Then, _You better go, Rey. They’re waiting for you._  
  
Rey smiled, if feebly, drying her eyes. No one was ever really gone.   
  
***  
  
It was arriving back at the camp on Ajan Kloss that Rey embraced her friends. She would have to go off to Tatooine, to investigate where the Skywalkers (as much a part of her as anything) began, but she could safely say that she was grateful, terribly so, just to be alive.  
  
And when she was called back from Tatooine, to see her cousin again, in the flesh and alive — well, she was glad, at least, to see her family again.   
  
It was the first thing regarding her family that had gone right for her.


End file.
